Page 6 of Ruin Me Knot
Gabriel’s lips peel back as he hooks his fingers into a male’s ear, grips the back of his skull and drives the Alpha’s face into his knee. Blood sprays. He whirls, more beast than man.
We don’t stop. We can’t. The absence of our Omega burns like a live wire under our skin. We don’t wait for the last body to hit the ground. We follow the thin thread of Leah’s scent through the stench of chemicals and copper. We tear down the hallway and bolt around the corner into another corridor.
Empty. Fucking empty and tainted with our Omega’s terror.
A fresh wave of her fear hits as we ram past the door into a stairwell, potent in the enclosed space. I fly down the stairs. Gabriel takes the steps three at a time, Jax right behind. The musky spike of our Omega winds tighter in my chest, tugging me faster, harder, as we charge down the floors to the lowest level. We burst through the basement door, lungs heaving, into the underground parking lot…
And freeze.
She’s not here.
Nothing is here but lines of empty cars and a pale light arcing shadows across stained cement. Her scent lingers, faint but sharp. Still fresh.
A screech splits the stale air as tires skid around a corner overhead, fast and reckless.
"She has to be in that car," Jax grits.
Gabriel’s jaw tenses as he speaks. "They’re hauling ass. We’re going to lose her if we don’t move now."
I target an older sedan wedged between two SUVs. I smash the side window with my elbow, glass shattering and raining over the seat. Pulse hammering behind my eyes, I unlock the door from inside, swipe the worst of the shards off the seat, and yank the panel under the steering column free.
Wires spill into my lap. Sweat drips down my nose and stings my eyes as I work the plastic ends off the two wires and twist them together. Gabriel keeps watch; Jax crouches low.
Nothing.
I try again, heart bucking hard and wild. The engine turns, once, twice. My hands shake, slick with sweat as I tap on the gas pedal and try not to flood the engine.
The engine roars to life.
Gabriel dives into the passenger side, Jax in back, doors slam. I floor it, tires shrieking on concrete as we rocket up the ramp.
My blood pounds so loud it drowns out everything else, but she is burned into my nostrils. Every instinct screams for action, adrenaline flooding my system, chest tight, vision sharp. If we lose her now, the senator could vanish with her into any of her bolt holes in the city, bury her in the dark, and we’d have to hunt every mile to find her again. Time we don’t have. I’ve no doubt Hardwick will kill our Omega if there’s even a whisper of threat to her power or her freedom. Every second we don’t have Leah with us is a second she’s vulnerable.
Our headlights spill out into the traffic roaring past, horns blaring, red and white lights slicing through the dark. I hesitate for a split second, eyes darting. Left or right? I clench the wheel, heart thundering.
Jax’s voice bursts through the tension, sharp and certain. "There! Go left. That’s a government vehicle."
I gun it, forcing my way into traffic. The world narrows to the blip of the vehicle ahead.
I edge the car through traffic, keeping two, three lengths and a couple of sedans between us and the senator’s SUV. I lean back, trying to make the pursuit look random, just another night driver. Muscle memory, drilled into us across a dozen black op sites and war zones, smooths every twitch. The world outside is streaked with light and shadows, city noise muffled under the tense pulse of the three of us.
Jax leans forward, his voice a low burr. "She could barely walk, Ronan. Did you see her shoulder? The bruising. She looked like she hadn't had a safe night in years. Hells, I’ve never seen someone flinch from an Alpha like that, either."
"She was shaking. She’s nothing but skin and bone. Starved. Sick bastards," Gabriel says.
I keep my voice tight, jaw locked. "She’s running on empty. She didn’t look up unless she had to. She froze when Hardwick barked at her, forcing her to move. And she still fought. Gods, she was still fighting."
Gabriel cracks his knuckles. "If that senator thinks her title will protect her from us, she’s clutching at straws. I’m gonna tear her apart and dance in her blood."
I catch his bright glare in the rearview mirror. "That’s a given, brother. I’ll make sure she eats her own teeth before I’m through with her."
Jax’s agreement resounds through the pack bond. "We’ve rescued a lot of Omegas. But not like this. This one’s ours. This is personal."
Urgency drives me forward, adrenaline hammering under my ribs. We served nearly a decade together. First as Marines, then building Hawthorne Security from the ground up. We protect the vulnerable when official channels fail, especially Omegas. But there aren’t words knowing the Omega in that SUV isn’t just another rescue. She’s our fated.Ours. Theonlything that matters.
"We won’t lose her," I grit out, swinging left at a light as the senator drifts into thinner traffic the further we head out of town. "There will be no errors."
I ease off the gas, falling farther back as the SUV leaves the lights behind, gliding into the industrial sector, empty and silent at this hour. I flick the headlights off, letting our car melt into the dark. We’re almost out of sight of the vehicle ahead now, only the faint red blink of taillights and the flash of chrome marking our target. Every nerve is stretched thin. It’s a gamble getting this far behind, but if they even catch a hint we’re following, we’ll lose her for real.
